


Broken Up Pretense

by Doctoring



Category: Ed Edd n Eddy
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Asking Out, Break Up, Coming Out, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 09:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23469343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctoring/pseuds/Doctoring
Summary: Edd is acting a bit strange today, and Kevin believes it has something to do with a rumor he recently heard. Edd finally explains everything, raising Kevin's hopes with each new revelation.
Relationships: Edd "Double D" & Kevin, Edd "Double D"/Kevin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 120





	Broken Up Pretense

“Excuse me, Kevin, but are you by chance free this afternoon?”

Kevin stopped walking towards his last class of the day to turn and face the source of the question. “Uh, yeah, you need something?” He quickly smoothed out his shirt and straightened his hat, hoping he didn’t look too rough after coming from gym class.

Edd gave an awkward ‘not really’ gesture before saying, “I just wanted to hang out if you were available.”

Kevin could tell he was beaming, but he couldn’t help it. It’s been quite some time since he was able to hang out with his crush like this. “Sure thing! Wanna just walk home with me? I gotta do something at home for Ma real quick, but then we can hang.”

Edd grinned slightly and said, “Sounds good! I’ll meet you by your locker!”

Kevin finally realized something when that hint of a smile faded from Edd’s face as he turned around towards his class. Edd wasn’t happy. He actually looked a bit displeased.

_Why would he look so unhappy when asking to hang out? Does he even want to? Or is it because of that rumor I heard at lunch…_

After the final bell, Kevin rushed to his locker and quickly packed his bag to go home. He was so lost in thoughts about all the possible reasons Edd would want to hang out on a school night, that he didn’t realize the object of those thoughts had walked up to him. Kevin just kept staring without realizing it, unnerving Edd who finally decided to wave a hand within inches of Kevin’s face. He startled back to reality.

“Oh shoot. My bad… Ready to go, dork?”

“I believe so.”

Kevin once again noticed that Edd did not seem happy, but he didn’t want to ask about it. _I’ll just let the dork spill if he wants to. I know he likes to keep his private life private._

So, as they walked to the cul-de-sac, they just talked about trivial occurrences in their classes, and planned to go to the creek to hang out since the weather was warming up. _Fuck. We’re making small talk about the weather. We’re being THOSE people._

Back at the Barr residence, Kevin pulled down a few suitcases from the attic and dusted them off, explaining that his Ma was going on a trip soon. However, during this time span, Edd’s phone went off three times, and each time his demeanor worsened. As Kevin was placing the cleaned off suitcases in his parents’ bedroom, his curiosity got the best of him.

“Hey, you okay?”

Edd only nodded slightly.

“Okay… then who keeps calling you?”

Edd placed a hand over his pocket that held his phone and said, “It’s of no importance… but do you think we can hang out here instead? I don’t mean to be a bother, but I just would rather not go outside and… and…”

Kevin waved him off, “No need to explain,” _dammit, what am I saying?_ “We can hang out here if you want.”

Kevin led the way to the living room and started searching for a show to watch. _Preferably one that’s not interesting enough to keep our attention, in cause Edd does want to talk about what’s going on._

But Edd doesn’t. They just sit there and quietly watch a movie for about 20 minutes until Kevin paused the movie and started to stand. “I’m getting a drink. You want anything?”

Edd opened his mouth but snapped it shut as his phone rang. He pulled it out and quickly muted it.

With how quickly Edd changed the settings to vibrate only and from where Kevin was standing, he couldn’t see the name on the screen, but he could see that whomever it was, they had a blue heart emoji after the name.

_How the hell did my heart speed up and sink at the same time?_

“Um… drink?”

Edd jerked his head up. “Oh, right… sorry… Could I have some water please?”

Kevin nodded and left for the kitchen. As he was returning with two glasses of water, he heard the familiar sound of a phone vibrating on the coffee table. He slowed his pace and watched Edd snatch up his phone. fiddling with it.

“Dude, is everything okay?” Kevin asked as he placed a glass down in front of Edd.

“I’m so sorry about this. I don’t want to turn my phone off in case mother or father calls, but I don’t know how to stop it from making so much noise! It’s new so I still haven’t figured out all the settings.”

“That’s weird, coming from you. I’d expect you’d to be through the entire manual by now, with a few notes in the margin on how they can improve the device.”

Edd finally smiled again. “I guess that does sound more typical for me.” He chuckled lightly but stopped as his phone buzzed just once, indicating that the caller left a voicemail this time.

Kevin took his spot on the couch again and sipped from his glass of water while watching Edd. “Dude. Just put your phone on the couch cushion next to you. It’ll muffle the buzzing slightly, but you can still know if your parents are calling.”

Edd nodded and started to put his phone down on the couch. He froze for a minute then quickly scooted over. So instead of the phone being placed on the cushion between the boys, Edd had moved to sit right next to Kevin and placed the phone on the cushion furthest from him.

It was this last gesture that sealed the deal for Kevin.

Typically, he’d let Edd talk about anything bothering him on his own terms, maybe with just the slightest nudge when deemed necessary. But now Kevin is going to have to pull a major interference to figure out why one of his closest friends is so upset about some caller… _And to see if the rumors are really true_.

As soon as the phone started buzzing again, Kevin lunged across Edd’s lap and grabbed at the phone. Deep down he knew who the caller was, was certain of it, but seeing that name with the blue heart still felt like a punch in the gut.

Marie. Edd’s girlfriend of the past five (almost six, but Kevin wasn’t counting) months.

Kevin looked up and saw the blank look on Edd’s face. He would appear to be unphased by Kevin’s sudden reaction, but the quick breathing and the heavy blush told another story. Kevin started blushing himself when he realized Edd’s reaction was due to an invasion of his personal space. He quickly glanced down, realizing that he was indeed splayed out across Edd’s lap. He swallowed, freezing in fear for just a moment, as if his terrible lustful thoughts might be made known if he moves too quickly. As he slowly lifted himself off Edd’s lap, he handed the now silent phone to Edd.

“Dude. It’s your girl. Why don’t you just talk to-”

“Please do not refer to her as that and it would be best if you minded your own-” Edd dropped the phone onto his lap and slapped a hand over his mouth, staring at Kevin with his eyes impossibly wide. He then quickly pulled his hat down over his face and said, “I am so terribly sorry for my outburst, Kevin. My emotions are not directed at you and I-”

“It’s true then, isn’t it? You dumped her.”

Edd peaked a glance out from under his hat. “How did you-”

“Nazz. Apparently Marie was saying stuff to her and must have convinced Nazz to talk to me… about you… about what I knew about you and what was going on… but I guess my blank stare told her everything. I knew nothing.” Kevin raised his eyebrow as if to tell Edd that he should fix that last part, and let Kevin in on what exactly happened.

Edd adjusted his hat and took a few deep breaths before speaking. “It’s true. I told her I couldn’t do it anymore.”

“Ah, fuck. That’s-”

“Language, Kevin!” Edd sing-songed, though his face was not as humored as it usual was for this signature phrase of his.

Kevin smirked and waved Edd’s comment off.

“ _Fudge_. Well… that sucks… both ending it and having to have that conversation… I’m sorry you had to go through that…” Kevin hoped his words sounded genuine, but it was hard to tell with the celebratory dance he was doing in his head. “But why does she keep calling? Is she trying to get back together?”

Edd scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Oh goodness, no, we were both through over two months ago.”

“Wha- What do you mean?”

“We just… we both really couldn’t keep up the act and became less of friends as time went on.”

“Was it because of that whole cheating thing you told me about a while back.”

“Partially.”

“Yeah, to be honest, I’m surprised you stayed with her after that. I couldn’t be with someone who wasn’t loyal. But you seemed happy so… I didn’t…” Kevin trailed off as Edd placed a hand on his knee.

“Kevin.” Edd let out a heavy sigh. “I feel just awful. You’ve been such a good friend, but I haven’t been completely honest with you. Mind you, it wasn’t my choice to make, not completely, but I still shouldn’t have done it. I feel just awful.”

“What are you saying dork?”

“I’m saying… that relationship, if you wanted to call it that… it wasn’t as it appeared. We tried to make it seem as normal as possible, but we couldn’t, for various reasons. One of which was the cheating, but it was mostly because we were lying to ourselves… and I just couldn’t let the façade drag on like this. So, this morning before school, I said to her, ‘Marie, I’m sorry, but I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep lying. And neither can you. We need to stop,’ and that was that… Or so I thought… but she keeps calling… probably because she thinks I’m going to tell people about… well, nevermind, but the point is…”

“WOAH. HOLD UP!” Kevin turned in his seat, so he was completely facing Edd. “‘Wasn’t as it appeared’… ‘façade’… Are you meaning to tell me that you were just pretending to date?”

Kevin. Was. Ecstatic!

He had a feeling that Edd might be interested in men and quickly developed a crush on him. But when Edd announced that he was now dating Marie, Kevin tried his hardest (and failed) to push his feelings aside. Kevin couldn’t help the joy he felt after learning that his biggest rival wasn’t a rival at all, but just a cover story. He still wasn’t sure if Edd really is gay or bi, but at least he knows that he should be free to hang out more, now that ‘Marie wants to hang out’ is no longer his go-to excuse.

Edd looked down as he fiddled with his phone in his lap. He gave a short nod before looking back up at Kevin. “I am sorry I didn’t tell you. I promise, I didn’t keep it a secret to hurt you. We had our reasons for pretending to date, but… those are a bit personal… I shouldn’t tell you-”

“Marie’s gay.”

“N-n-no! S-she’s-”

“Come off it, dork. I’m pretty fucking certain she’s a lesbian.”

“Language-”

“She’s gay. Stop denying and deflecting.”

Edd looked completely dumbfounded. “H-how did you know?”

“C’mon Edd. She’s constantly flirting with Nazz, who is also the first person she ran to after the break-up. And she has cheated on you. With women. Three times. Probably more, but you only know of three of them.”

Edd chuckled. “Guess her plan didn’t work then.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow. “So, this was all her plan?”

“Yes. She thought her sisters were getting suspicious, and they’re not exactly… open-minded, to put it lightly, so she figured that if we dated, no one would figure out we are gay and just see the heteronormativity of our relationship, dismissing any suspicious they might have had, though apparently that doesn’t work when you openly make out with someone of the same gender. That’s ultimately why I called it quits. Lying was eating away at me, but it was so much worse when she couldn’t even keep up with the act herself, and it just made me appear to be the fool in the relationship, being loyal to someone who wasn’t loyal to me… I’m so sorry, I’m rambling again… Kevin, are you alright?”

Kevin was just staring at him blankly. He couldn’t believe his ears. He opened his mouth to say something, but it took a few more moments before one word finally escaped.

“We?”

“‘We?’ What do you mean-”

“You said ‘we’ as in ‘ _we_ are gay’… you included yourself…”

“Oh my… well… I- I am… gay that is… and I’m sorry if it bothers you, but I-”

“Dork, do even apologize. Never apologize for that. And trust me, I am not bothered at all.” _Far from bothered, actually._

Edd smiled slightly and nodded. “Thank you… That actually means a lot to me.”

They sat in silence for a while, looking at each other, before Kevin looked away and awkwardly cleared his through. He reached for the remote, unpausing the movie.

“Let’s, um, let’s finish this movie.”

“Kevin, I’m sorry if this is uncomfortable or awkward for you.”

“It’s not that, trust me. It’s just a lot of information all at once for me to process.” Kevin offered a smile, which Edd returned with a blush.

After a while of pretending to watch the movie, Kevin paused it again, and turned his body towards Edd. “I have a question about this- this whole thing with you and Marie…”

Edd gave him a cautious look before he said, “Go ahead.”

“Why did you do it? I understand Marie was trying to hide something, get her sisters off her trail or whatever, but why did you do it? Did you like her?” Kevin knew Edd just confessed to being gay, but he wanted the confirmation. Wanted to know just how fake this relationship really was.

Edd shrugged. “I’ve learned to like her, but only as a friend, but these past few months have started to change that. As for going along with the pretense, I don’t know why. It’s not like I hide my sexuality, I just don’t announce it. I prefer to keep my life private.”

With a sigh, he continued, “I think I mainly just wanted to help her out, since she seemed so distressed about it. But I was never completely sold on the idea, and my apprehension only grew over time. Over these past few months I’ve realized that it just prevented the both of us from being our true selves. For instance, I wanted to get closer to someone else and I couldn’t do that if I was pretending to be dating someone already. It hindered me from being open and honest and willing to venture out and… it was just awful…”

“I get that… well, it’s over now-” Kevin was interrupted by Edd’s phone again.

“Let me take care of this,” Edd said as he stood and left the room to answer the phone.

Kevin was torn between going down that rabbit hole of _what did Edd mean by someone he wanted to get closer to?_ and eavesdropping on Edd’s phone conversation.

Essentially it led to him thinking _Did he mean me? Was he into me?_ while catching only a few phrases such as “no, no, no, Marie” and “of course I won’t tell anyone else, but you should-”

When Edd returned to the room, he immediately smiled at Kevin.

“I take it that it went well.”

Edd nodded. “Yes. She wasn’t too happy about me telling you everything and was worried I would do the same to anyone else I talk to. However, when I told her you already figured it out because of her behavior, it must have grounded her and made her reassess the situation. She calmed down and we talked about where to go from here.”

“Awesome, dude. Feeling better now?”

“Yes!”

“Choice. Now let’s finish this movie.”

However, Kevin couldn’t stop thinking about the things Edd said. He knew he shouldn’t assume he had a chance with Edd all from one sentence, but he couldn’t help himself. Edd did seek him out first after the ordeal. He had wanted to hang out with him as he dealt with the aftermath.

_That’s gotta mean something, right?_

Kevin looked back over at Edd, wondering if he should take the chance. It’s been nearly nine months since he first realized he was crushing on the dork. And during the past six months of that his feelings did not change, even with Edd clearly being in a relationship, or so it seemed.

He paused the movie, once again, deciding to take a leap.

“Is everything okay, Kevin?”

“Yeah, just processing everything still. So, Marie and you were not really dating each other?”

“Not at all.”

“And you were not actually into each other?”

“Nope.”

“Because she’s gay?”

“Yes. And it seems like you processed it all pretty quickly and effectively.” Edd drops the sass tone and lowered his gaze. “Kevin, I’m sorry if this is awkward, and if you are mad at me for lying or-”

“Woah! No! Don’t even go there. I’m still one-hundred percent cool with you, dork… It was just several huge bombs at once… that’s all… but we’re still cool…” Kevin waited a moment before asking the next question. “And you weren’t into her cause you’re gay, too?”

“Yes… are you’re sure you’re okay with-”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just trying to get everything right, bear with me please.”

Edd sighs and reaches for his glass of water. “Proceed.”

“So… you’re single, now?”

Kevin tried his hardest not to laugh at Edd sputtering on his water. “Uh… yeah… guess you could even say I’ve been single this whole time.” Edd laughed nervously.

“Heh. Guess so.” Kevin scooted closer to Edd. “Okay. So. Because the relationship was fake, and you were never into it to begin with… is it safe to assume you don’t really need a lot of time to get over it?”

“I suppose you could say I was over it before it even began.” Edd looked up at the stilled TV screen, and mumbled, “I always thought it was a foolish idea…”

Kevin just nodded, not caring if Edd noticed or not. “So… you’re free to go out with me this weekend?”

Edd choked on a gasp. After he stops coughing, he jerked his head towards Kevin. “WHAT!?”

“This weekend. Would you like to go on a date? With me? Maybe?” Kevin waits for a reply, his hopes rising like the blush in Edd’s cheeks. But after a long silence, he eventually sighed, saying, “Sorry, I just thought that maybe you felt the same way and-”

Edd grabbed Kevin’s hands in his own. “I- I’d love to!”

Kevin turned his hand in Edd’s and linked their fingers, as he grinned back at Edd. After a pause, he started the movie once again.

“Choice!”

-the end-

**Author's Note:**

>  **Announcement, April 3, 2020:**  
>  Hey guys! There's a few more kinks to work out but soon there will be a new KevEdd event!  
> If you think you'd like to make some KevEdd content for it, either fanfic, fanart, or almost anything else, please be sure to keep an eye out on either of the following tumblrs: The [KevEdd AO3 Feed](https://ao3feed-kevedd.tumblr.com) or the [KevEdd Rec List](https://keveddreclist.tumblr.com) (which is still SUPER under construction).  
> The official announcement and further information will be posted to both tumblrs within the next two weeks (hopefully just one week if work doesn't overload me again).
> 
> Hope you all can participate!! <3


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